A Real Family
by LanceIsHot
Summary: Ray gets a chance to talk to the one person he never got to talk to when he was alive. R&R please!


**A/N Hey everyone! Ok, just so you know, this is Ray who's telling the story. Don't want you to get confused. And also, I spent an hour last night on the internet trying to find any info I could about him, but there isn't a lot, he's only in like, one comic. So I made a history up. If you can find anything besides the fact that he was a Morlock, please let me know, because I couldn't. **

**Ok, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Why do we have to write these? It's kinda obvious I don't own anything.**

Hey. It's been awhile. I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. I could make up some lame excuse, but, it really doesn't seem worth it. I guess you already know why I'm here, huh? Well, I can't say I was surprised when Scott told me, you were really old, and that cough of yours was getting really bad.

Was that how you wanted to die? Sick and weak in a bed? I figured you'd want to be fighting, or doing whatever it is that you do. I guess you weren't really able to fight.

Well, I'm not really sure what to say. I've never had to do this before. Usually, whenever someone I knew died, I just went on with my life. I guess I couldn't do that with you.

Did you ever know what happened to me before I came to the mansion? I never told you, but I could never tell if you were reading my mind or not. It always bugged me. Anyways, everyone figured out that I was once with the Morlocks when I went after Evan. I never told anyone else what happened before that.

I lived with my parents and older brother. It was okay for awhile, but then my mom died, and everything went downhill from there. She had gotten into a car accident, died right there. I got my powers the day she died. I was young, but, losing a mom is pretty big. And my dear old dad was so messed up about losing mom; he threw me out of the house. Maybe he thought I would come back, but I didn't. I tried going to my aunt's house, but she kicked me out the second I fried the VCR. I can understand she was a bit freaked out, but, isn't there supposed to be a family bond there? In less than two weeks, I had been abandoned by my family twice.

I was twelve, and had no where to go.

You might think that that's when I met the Morlocks, but they had just gotten started, they weren't even allowing mutants who looked normal in yet. I don't even think you had more than Scott and Jean back then. Man, I didn't realize how long ago that was.

I actually left New York for awhile, hitch-hiked my way to who-knows-where. Met a couple of kids, runaways like me, who kind of adopted me in. We didn't have a name; we were just a bunch of kids trying to survive on our own. There were six of them, seven including me. Four of us were mutants, one guy was barely recognizable as a human, and the other three were just kids whose home life had gotten too tough.

I didn't really fit in that well. I had just lost my mom, and then my family and home, and I was not ready to let that go. I fought with the leader, this kid named Brian, all the time over stupid things. Brian wasn't a mutant, but he was the oldest, just over seventeen. He threatened to kick me out so many times it became an almost nightly thing. But he could never bring himself to do it, probably because he had gotten thrown out of his home, and couldn't do it to someone else. I'm not sure- I never asked.

Anyways, life with them was okay. None of us could have a real job, so we had to steal. Brian was an expert in the art of stealing, and he taught me everything I know. We didn't steal that much, just enough food to survive, and whatever necessities we needed, like clothes and medicine. I got in a lot of fights with the others, but their lives were just as messed up as mine, and they got in just as many, if not more.

I never got attached to any of them- I was the youngest, and they talked about things that I didn't understand. I hated being the baby of the group, you of all people should know I don't like rules or being told what to do, but we never got the chance to get some younger recruits.

I'll never forget the night it happened. It was in March, the twenty-second. We had gotten into fights with a couple gangs, in our business, it was expected. I'm pretty sure Brian stole some money from them, actually. But I guess I can't ask now. The gang, I never even stuck around to find out anything about them, came late that night. All but Carrie, who was keeping an eye on things, were asleep. The second Carrie realized that someone was there, she woke everyone up.

We were staying in an abandoned theater, and there were only three screens. Girls stayed in one, and the guys stayed in the other. They were really close, and Carrie had no trouble waking everybody up. She was so scared, well, we all were.

I remember Brian telling me to hide, and to not come out until things had calmed down. I had learned from experience that ignoring Brian was not a wise thing to do, so I locked myself in the screening booth. I'm not sure if he knew what was going to happen that night, but he saved my life. I just wish he had told all of them to hide.

I didn't watch to see what would happen. I heard a lot of people coming in, and there was a lot of shooting, followed by a lot of screaming. It didn't take that long for a bunch of guys with guns to take out six teenagers, so things were over pretty quickly. I left the booth to see if I could help anyone, to see if anyone was alive. The only one who was still breathing was Brian. He was shot in the chest and the leg, and he was struggling to breathe.

I went up to him, held his head up, and tilted it when he started coughing up blood. I didn't know much, I hadn't been to school in 22 months, but I knew that was bad. When I asked him if there was anything I could do to help, he just said that he was sorry.

That day still gives me nightmares. Did they ever wake you up? The visions of the others on the floor, oozing with blood. I never understood what Brian meant when he said he was sorry. Sorry for what? Sorry for not saving everyone? or for leaving me alone? for not really letting me be a part of the real group? For awhile, I figured that he had lost it, and was apologizing to his family, but then I realized he would never do that, even that close to death.

So, I left them there. Just lying there, in their blood. I made an anonymous call to the cops, so I hope that they gave everyone decent funerals. I didn't go to one, though. I never went back to the theater, and I never cried.

It almost tore me up inside, knowing that I couldn't hurt for these kids, kids who had taken me in when it was only a bigger burden for them. Kids who had sent me away from the slaughter they knew was going to happen. They knew we couldn't all get away, they would just chase after us, and we were outnumbered, so they let me live.

And I couldn't even find it in my heart to say goodbye to them.

Man, it feels good to get that off my chest. It seems weird that the only person I'd tell is the only person who can't hear. Hmm, well, when put like that, it makes perfect sense.

Anyways, after that, I did some traveling, and met up with Callistro, who led me to the Morlocks. I got to say, I fit in with them as well as I did with the last group. I was one of the few who wasn't disfigured, and most of them hated me for it. I was able to go up and buy things, which made me a bit more tolerable, but there were still a lot of people who hated me.

I distanced myself from everyone again, I'm not sure why. Maybe because I was afraid of losing them, and I didn't want to feel that emptiness inside. I'm not really sure. I did a lot of things there, but I was only with them eight months. That's when you found me.

Did you know I was upset when you didn't come for me? You sent Logan, who, if you hadn't noticed, isn't exactly that friendly. He pretty much said that I join up with the X-men, or he would put his claws threw my stomach. Well, those weren't the _exact_ words, but you get the idea.

It really made me mad when I realized that the rich millionaire Xavier couldn't come down to personally invite a kid from the sewers into his home. I had put up with people calling me trash for eight months, and now the guy who was supposed to be my mentor proved that he wanted nothing to do with me.

Did you ever notice that I never came to you to talk? That we never talked one-on-one? I know you talked to most of the others about their problems, and I knew that you wouldn't be able to understand any of what I was going through.

I know this is sort of turning into a self-pitying spiel, but I always wanted to tell you. Maybe you didn't mean to seem better than me, but you always did. I never got any of the special attention the others got, but, that could have been because I would have brushed you off if you tried to be nice.

It's rude, but it's true. I never liked you, but then, I never knew you. Most of the time, I respected your judgment calls and your decisions on things. Really, though, I sometimes wished you had never picked me up.

I never said good-bye to the Morlocks, never told them where I was going. It only took about five minutes to agree to go with Logan. I was once again betraying the people who had taken me in-and I didn't feel any remorse in it.

It was like another group of people who I thought cared about me had died, and I wasn't able to shed a tear.

So, I know I came to say my last goodbyes, because I didn't go to your funeral, but all this talking has made me think of something else.

I want to thank you, Professor, for picking me up all those years ago. I know sometimes I regretted leaving, but you really helped me. I don't want to get sappy or anything, but…man, this is so weird saying this, you gave me a family. I know living with people for two years, and then a different group for eight months should mean I'm pretty set on the family scale, but, honestly, they weren't my family. They were people who had taken me in, sure, and those kids gave there lives for me, but still. It's different.

I'm proposing to Amara tonight. Yeah, it's been a _long_ time since you left. I just thought I'd let you know. Maybe soon I'll tell her all the things I'm telling you. It's not right to keep her locked out of my life.

I'm sorry I was such a jerk back then, never letting anyone close. I was afraid of losing another group of people. I was afraid of letting anyone become my family, or anything close to it. But that all changed, because of you, because of the family that was already made, that you brought me in to.

Thanks Professor, for giving me something I thought I had lost when I was kicked out of my home all those years ago.

A real family.

**A/N, sappy, and a bit un-Ray like, but, I enjoyed writing it. So, leave a review please!**


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